In the Wausau School District alone, buses will complete nearly 200 routes every day. And from the moment they arrive for work, to the time their route is done, the safety of the students stays on the drivers' minds.

Statistically, injuries and fatalities are most likely to happen when a school bus is stopped, loading or discharging kids. That's when drivers need to be at the top of their game.

As soon as a bus turns on its flashing stop lights, even if the stop arm isn't yet out, vehicles behind the bus and approaching it from the front are supposed to stop at least 20 feet away. But bus drivers say the number of operators who put kids at risk every day either because they don't know the rules, or they choose to ignore them is an epidemic.

"When they're not even looking like they're slowing down ahead of time, so you pretty much know they're not going to stop”, says Roger Tesch, a driver and safety supervisor for First Student in Wausau. “So you’re prepared if anything goes wrong up ahead, and you’re always anticipating to stop, you know, just in case.”

The afternoon we rode with Roger was no exception. As he put his flashing lights on and extended the stop arm to let kids off the bus, an oncoming car proceeded through. Roger then needs to wait to be sure traffic from both directions was stopped before letting the students off.

It was behavior we saw again and again as we followed school buses on their routes. And it means bus drivers need to always drive defensively. “People are busier, and times are tighter, and I think that’s one of the main priorities”, said Elliott Grasse, Manager for First Student in Wausau. “People have a lot on their mind. People aren’t thinking about what the school bus driver needs.”

But whatever the reason violations are so common, law enforcement says there's no excuse. And the bus drivers do have some recourse. "If you do violate the red lights, that's an owner-responsibility law in which all the bus driver has to do is get a plate number and a vehicle description”, said Dennis Saager, Traffic Lieutenant for the Wausau Police Department. “They report it to law enforcement, and in a timely fashion we can issue a citation to the owner of that car for the violation.”

The fine for a first violation is more than $300.00. But First Student says their goal isn't to fine drivers, but to build awareness of the laws and the reasons for the laws, so that it doesn’t happen in the first place. "We're out there at the worst travel times of the day, in the morning with rush hour, we're there at noon with the lunch hours, and in the P.M. with the commute home”, says Grasse. “It's a struggle but as long as everybody's driving safely, there should be no problem.”